Low level food question

[Sakuraluna]

Hi, just wondering what food is good for a low level arcanist just starting out. What stats should I be looking to boost? Since I'm just getting started with quests that require me to kill things, I'd like something that raises my defense, magic damage, spellcasting speed or anything like that might help. The stats listed are a little different from what I'm used to with ffxi and it has me a little bit confused. Thanks for any help. ^_^

[Enkidoh]

Well, as a mage you would want anything that boosts either Piety (PIE), Intelligence (INT) or Mind (MND), for boosting MP, magic attack power and healing potency respectively. Mind is more a secondary stat for ACN though unless you're casting Physick a lot but it all helps.

[Estellios]

The only base stat that foods will raise are PIE and VIT.

Anything else they boost are secondary stats, so Accuracy, Determination, Crit Rate, and Parry.

Food in general is a small boost, but a more "consistent" damage/healing increase will be given by food with Determination. If you look at the stats on the food, it lists a % boost and a Max value. For example, Determination +4% (Max 10) will give you up to 10 Determination. Higher level foods have higher caps but lower % boosts, so you can do the math and figure out what would be best for your stats.

Worst case scenario food will give you extra HP from the VIT bonus and a small XP boost so it's worth having some on hand whenever you do stuff like dungeons.

[SeraviEdalborez]

There is no situation 1-50 where you absolutely require food for successful completion, nor should you "really" notice the effect of say 2 VIT or 4 Determination.

If you must eat something, do it for the 3% exp boost. It really doesn't matter what you eat pre-50.

Determination food will generally be best. Avoid PIE/Speed food. It's unnecessary.

[Urthdigger]

Something of note: ALL food will increase vitality, in essence raising survivability. Your choice of secondary stat determines what food category you go after (note: the food in the market boards are organized by category). Mushroom dishes are determination (overall damage), egg dishes are crit, sweets are spell speed, and juices are Piety (For max MP). Once you decide on category (Determination is likely best, followed by crit, then piety, then spell speed. But feel free to try any of them, the less useful ones will be cheaper) you'll want to figure out precisely which one you want. Take a look at the percentages and caps. Higher level food has lower percentages but higher caps, meaning they CAN be better than low level food, but only if you have the stats for it. For example, one food may say it gives 10% determination with a cap of 12. If you have 100 determination, you'll get +10 determination. If you have 120, you'll get +12. If you have 200, still +12. A higher level food may have +8%, but with a cap of 20. In this case, the 200 determination player gets +16, better than the previous food, but the 100 determination player would only get 8, LESS than the old food. You can calculate how much you'll get by taking your stat (after any armor), multiplying by the percentage, diving by 100, and if it's over the cap set it to the cap. Start with the lowest level food in your category and go up until the amount you get starts going down, in order to see what gives the highest.

[Ecosmith]

What's this about? Are these temporary buffs from eating foods or permanent?

[Niwashi]

Food buffs last for 30 minutes after you eat the food that provides them. And you can only have one food's buffs active at a time. They all give a slight XP boost, and then depending on the food type, a slight boost to any of several other stats as well.

[Sakuraluna]

Thanks for the informative answers everyone! A few more questions though, Are stats like Accuracy, Crit, VIt, etc. still applicable for mage jobs, or would I need to look out for a different set of effects like magic acc. and such? Or is that line of thinking a little bit too FFXI? haha. I'll check the auction house for foods with those stats, I'm just used to the notion that they were more for physical-damage dealing classes and I hadn't been paying them any attention.

And Urthdigger, I love how in-depth your reply was. One thing I've been wondering about too is skill levels. Does it work the same way in xiv as it did in xi, etc. Will I need to pay attention to keeping different skills capped as I level, or is this more automatic in xiv? I haven't quite figured out how to tell where I am skillwise, still learning my way around the in-game menus. Also, your name is very familiar. Were you ever on Unicorn in XI? If so, I was Nymphadora.

[juniglee]

Yes Accuracy, Crit, Vit are always applicable stats when it comes to food. In terms of magic and physical accuracy, this game doesn't have such differentiation, however a mage has an easier time hitting enemies, so they tend to have a lower Accuracy requirement than melee DPS. The more class specific stats are Skill and Spell Speed - however in most cases you generally avoid these food.

There's no skill levels. Certain classes gain Traits that boost the use of skills while in certain classes/jobs - for example, traited Blood for Blood means that Lancers/Dragoons gain +25% damage from Blood for Blood, compared to an Archer/Bard or a Pugilist/Monk who cross-class Blood for Blood only gaining +10% damage instead.

[Urthdigger]

Hi Nymphadora! Yes, this is the same Urthdigger. Looks like Juniglee got to the answers first, but I would like to clarify a few other changes from XI. For starters, weapon damage plays a large role in most spells, including cures. In addition, weapons have both physical and magical damage, though only the main one for the class is visible outside of .dat mining. The hidden one is typically smaller of course, which does mean a paladin can't self-heal very well since they lack both Mind and magic damage.

Lemme know if you have any other questions. I think you had me added on one messenger or another?